Category Archives: Original Designs

I’ve been working on finishing up the final Fantasy Project, and I have about 2/3 of them up on the wall, and it shouldn’t be much longer. Between that project, my crazy Birthday Party, and the GameZoneRadio podcast, I haven’t been making anything else pageworthy.

I made the other hosts of the podcast, and made them key rings so Ken and Mitch could have one of their own. I think it kinda looks like a Devo album cover.

I’ve been working on a few new projects aside from this website, and one of them is GameZoneRadio.com6 years ago, I was co-host on a videogame podcast called Game Zone Radio. I’ve helped to restart the website, and a few days ago, we recorded our 57th episode (warning some NSFW language), which was a really good time, and made me feel 6 years younger.

The site design is done in 8-bit characters of the hosts, and this is my avatar. I will be creating the other hosts and posting the results here. Since I’m podcasting again, I’m toying with the idea of a HardcorePerler podcast, too. =)

Kyle McCoy runs his blog over at http://www.pixelartshop.com and he released this video over on YouTube today. I like how the medium of pixel art with Perler beads is approached as a minimalist artform. The Springfield piece he did was particularly impressive.

The guys over at BitBeads.com are kickstarting a new case for the iPhone that allows you to create 21×11 beadsprites inside of a special frame, and slide it into the case; it’s really cool stuff.

Inspired by the designs they had on the site, I made a few of my own, and it really made me wish I had one of my own to put on my phone. My 10 year old daughter gave me the stink eye when she saw I made the little baby chicks piece, but I assured her that I also made a sword, so the balance was maintained. =)

I have been making Perler bead art for about 8 months now, and in that span have made about 250 individual pieces of bead-art. I like to make these tutorial videos almost as much as making the beadsprites themselves.

I loved the Ren and Stimpy cartoons and games back in the 90’s. This beadsprite I made was inspired from “The Ren and Stimpy Show: Time Warp” for the SNES.

I wanted to wait until I had the video ready to go, but I haven’t fully decided on what I want to do with it. I have some great footage of the beading process as well as the taping and ironing. That video should be up in whatever from I decide it will end up as.

Ren and Stimpy was one of my favorite cartoons when I was in my teens. My stepfather at the time had forbidden me to watch any cartoons at home, so I had to go over to my friends houses to watch it, which of course made it all the more interesting. My stepfather also forbid me from watching the taped episodes of Saturday Night Live, as well, as that show was too “adult” for me. I’ve come to the conclusion that he just wanted me off the couch and out of the house.

I made several changes to the source sprites I found online, including adding a neon yellow border to make it “pop”. The source sprites came from “The Ren and Stimpy Show: Time Warp” when Ren and Stimpy are doing the “Happy happy, joy joy” Dance.

I loved Ghostbusters as a kid; it had so many of the things a good movie should have. Not many writers could take something like the supernatural and occult, and turn it into a thriller, a sci-fi action movie, and a comedy.

I found a variation of this sprite online, so I can’t take any credit for the design, but I wanted to make one to put near one of my air vents in the house. She came out looking more embarrassed than coy.

As I was fusing the princess, I was also ironing Pac-Man as well. As I was getting them ready for pictures, I thought it would be funny if I made it look like he was looking up her dress… What do you think? Funny, or tacky?

There was a time when Pac-Man was the most iconic videogame character in America. Some would argue that he still is. There was a breakfast cereal, boardgame with marbles for a plastic Pac-Man to “eat”. Also, the Pac-Family had a Saturday morning cartoon, and a platformer arcade game.

I made this version of Pacman without the goofy hat. If I make him again, I will put the hat back on. I might have fused a little too hot on this, but the flat side came out really good. It’s nearly impossible to keep the black beads from bleeding into the other colors. I think bead height differences might be part of it, or it might be that the black absorbs the heat better and liquefies.

Now there are many clones on the appstores, and online versions of the game, too. Flappy Doge is one of my favorites, and it was too perfect to not make a Perler version of it. If you try the game out, I am not not responsible for any hair that you pull out, or replacement of your phone after you stomp on it repeatedly =)